1
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,960
# You go to my head

2
00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:13,400
# And you linger
like a haunted refrain

3
00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:19,320
# And I find you spinning round
in my brain...

4
00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:21,280
Just over 20 years ago,

5
00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:24,920
Britain came to the end of one
of our longest wars in our history.

6
00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:29,160
# You go to my head...

7
00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:34,280
It was a war that made our Britain.

8
00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:42,880
This is Cold War Britain.

9
00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:50,120
In the last years of the Cold War,

10
00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,360
the world seemed a dark
and dangerous place.

11
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,520
The West rediscovered
its crusading spirit.

12
00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:01,080
The East collapsed into crisis

13
00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:06,440
and British culture was
inspired by terror and freedom.

14
00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:13,240
But there was more to the Cold War
than shadows and secrets.

15
00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,120
It was a war
in which we all played a part.

16
00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,800
A war between two very
different visions of the future.

17
00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:28,120
A war of material dreams
and atomic nightmares.

18
00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:59,680
This was once the front line
of the war against Communism.

19
00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:07,680
It was here
that the battle of ideas raged.

20
00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,960
And it was here that the West
made its last decisive stand

21
00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:18,320
against the Soviet Empire.

22
00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:32,080
Welcome to Brent Cross.

23
00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:35,000
# Good morning world,
it's a brand new day

24
00:02:36,920 --> 00:02:39,240
"Brent Cross,
this temple of consumerism,

25
00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:43,320
may well determine the future
style of British shopping habits in
years to come."

26
00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:47,400
When this opened
in north London in 1976,

27
00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:49,760
it was the biggest, the most modern

28
00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:52,920
and the most exciting
shopping centre in the country.

29
00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:57,320
But it also represented
a new front in the Cold War

30
00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:02,120
because at its heart the struggle
between East and West
was an ideological competition,

31
00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:05,400
a contest to see who could give
their people

32
00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:09,440
the economic security and the
creature comforts they wanted.

33
00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,560
I think it's one of the best
precincts or shopping centres I've
been in.

34
00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:19,200
MAN: But it cost a lot of money.

35
00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:22,240
Certainly must have cost a lot
of money but it's well worth it.

36
00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:26,160
With a £25 million price tag,

37
00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:31,000
Brent Cross was Britain's
first American-style shopping mall

38
00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,840
and we loved it.

39
00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:37,360
Very good. I've just been in Marks,
it's very, very nice

40
00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:40,320
and it will save us
all the journey up the West End.

41
00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:43,040
You know you can judge
the state of a country

42
00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:45,760
by what you can or can't buy
on its shelves

43
00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:49,640
and in 1976,
Britain's shelves were overflowing.

44
00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:52,320
# All right

45
00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:57,080
# Different labels
and the different brands

46
00:03:57,600 --> 00:03:59,640
# Reaching across the land

47
00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:02,040
# Different colours
in the different states

48
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:07,520
From cassette recorders and
calculators to hot pants and high
heels,

49
00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,680
the Western economy was now
delivering the kind of things

50
00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:13,520
that most ordinary Russians
could barely dream about.

51
00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:18,000
By the late 1970s,
the underlying pattern was clear.

52
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,720
Capitalism simply gave you more.

53
00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:24,720
# Well, I walked to the mall
and I walked up and down

54
00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,640
# I got tired so I got sat down

55
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,680
Across the iron curtain,
things were very different.

56
00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:45,560
By the late 1970s, Communist
utopianism had given way to the grim
reality

57
00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:50,000
of food shortages, empty shelves
and stagnant living standards.

58
00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,040
In the Soviet Union, queuing not
consumerism

59
00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,480
had become the national pastime.

60
00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:01,240
There's an old Soviet joke.

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00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:03,200
A man goes off to buy a car,

62
00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:05,640
he hands over his money
and he fills in a form

63
00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:09,560
and he fills in another form
and he fills in another form

64
00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:11,720
and at last the dealer says to him,

65
00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:15,000
"It's yours, come back
in ten years to pick it up,"

66
00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,520
and the man says,
"OK, morning or afternoon?"

67
00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:21,640
"It's ten years away," says the
dealer, "what do you care?"

68
00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:24,800
And the man says, "Well, I've got
the plumber coming in the morning."

69
00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,400
Jokes like this
captured a bleak reality.

70
00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:34,480
The Soviet economy could no longer
compete with Western capitalism.

71
00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:37,720
For 30 years after the Second
World War,

72
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:41,800
Soviet planners had dreamed of
overtaking the West

73
00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:46,880
but by 1976 they were falling
steadily behind

74
00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:49,520
and they couldn't cover it up
any longer.

75
00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:56,840
One of the chief causes was on
parade every May, here in Red
Square.

76
00:06:00,280 --> 00:06:02,520
The Kremlin's enormous military
spending

77
00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:04,760
was bankrupting their country.

78
00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:09,800
Proportionately, they spent three
times as much as the Americans

79
00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:12,160
and four times as much as Britain.

80
00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:15,680
It was simply unsustainable

81
00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:18,800
and in the dying days of the 1970s,

82
00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:23,040
our different priorities
were thrown into stark relief.

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00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:27,000
# God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

84
00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:33,920
"Entertainment for all the family,
this Christmas on BBC One."

85
00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:39,480
"Snow Time Special features our host
of stars against a spectacular
Alpine setting."

86
00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:41,960
On Christmas Day 1979,

87
00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,160
while millions of Britons
were opening their presents,

88
00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:47,400
the Red Army was on the move.

89
00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:50,840
"The number of Soviet troops in
Afghanistan

90
00:06:50,840 --> 00:06:52,680
has risen over the past few days

91
00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:54,520
to about six and a half thousand."

92
00:06:56,520 --> 00:06:58,600
While we slept off our turkey,

93
00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:01,440
the Soviet Union went to war,

94
00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:07,320
sending tanks and troops thundering
into their southern neighbour,
Afghanistan.

95
00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:14,840
The Kremlin claimed they were
supporting a government under attack
from tribal insurgents

96
00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:17,080
but the West was horrified.

97
00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:25,600
Afghanistan came to symbolise
a dramatic decline in East-West
relations.

98
00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:30,240
The 1970s had been the era
of detente,

99
00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:34,720
when the nuclear super powers
talked of peaceful co-existence.

100
00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:39,800
But now on the cusp of a new decade,
the Cold War was back.

101
00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:45,920
Could Afghanistan even be
the trigger for a Third World War?

102
00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:52,360
To the leaders of the West,
it seemed an unpardonable act of
Communist aggression.

103
00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:55,680
It was time, they thought,
to stand up to the Kremlin

104
00:07:55,680 --> 00:08:00,640
and the front line, in this new
confrontation, was down there.

105
00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:06,840
The 1980 Olympics
would be the battleground.

106
00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:14,480
And in Moscow's Olympic stadium,
before the eyes of the world,

107
00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:18,600
sport and politics would collide
as never before.

108
00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:24,120
For millions of British families,

109
00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:28,760
the most compelling clash on the
world stage wasn't East versus West,

110
00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:30,960
it was a purely domestic affair,

111
00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:34,040
the biggest rivalry in world sport.

112
00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:37,320
They were both British, they were
both middle distance runners

113
00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:41,960
and in 1980,
this was their battlefield.

114
00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:50,120
They were, of course,
Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett.

115
00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:53,680
They were from different backgrounds
and had different styles.

116
00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:57,040
They were compared to the Beatles
and the Stones.

117
00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:00,360
This was a golden era
for British athletics.

118
00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:04,400
Coe was the man you'd want
your daughter to marry,

119
00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:07,560
Ovett the man
you'd want on your side in a fight.

120
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:12,360
At middle distance running,
they were unequalled.

121
00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:14,680
They broke world records for fun.

122
00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:18,680
They held four between them and took
it in turns to break each other's

123
00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:22,960
but before the Moscow Olympics,
they'd only gone head to head once

124
00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:25,200
in international competition.

125
00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:27,760
This was the race everyone
wanted to see.

126
00:09:28,680 --> 00:09:30,880
Steve is a very talented athlete.

127
00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:34,760
No, there isn't a great deal
more to say, is there?

128
00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:38,040
And here in Moscow's
Olympic stadium,

129
00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:40,880
in front of 100,000 spectators,

130
00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:45,720
they were planning to go
head to head, not once but twice.

131
00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:49,280
For most British viewers,

132
00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:51,240
these weren't the Moscow Olympics,

133
00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:53,680
they were the Coe-Ovett Olympics.

134
00:09:53,680 --> 00:09:56,320
It was a duel
that divided the nation,

135
00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:58,960
and when they went
head to head in this stadium,

136
00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:03,040
almost 20 million people were
watching back home.

137
00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:06,480
This was one of history's
greatest sporting showdowns

138
00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,520
and yet it very nearly
never happened.

139
00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:11,760
I have notified
the Olympic Committee

140
00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:15,280
that with Soviet invading forces
in Afghanistan

141
00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:18,000
neither the American people nor I

142
00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,920
will support sending
an Olympic team to Moscow.

143
00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:24,160
When the Americans pulled out,

144
00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:28,840
Margaret Thatcher was adamant
our athletes must do the same.

145
00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,600
One way to bring home
to the Russian people

146
00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:36,680
the enormity of what has happened
by their government invading
Afghanistan

147
00:10:36,680 --> 00:10:38,960
is to boycott the Olympic Games

148
00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:42,240
and that could in fact bring it home
to the Russian people

149
00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:44,080
more forcefully than anything else.

150
00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:48,520
Just seven months
into her job as prime minister,

151
00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:51,160
she saw this as her
first opportunity

152
00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:54,600
to flex her muscles
against the Soviet menace.

153
00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,360
But she had a fight on her hands.

154
00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:04,560
My attitude is very simple, that
sport should not be the first line
in foreign policy.

155
00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:07,400
I think it's dangerous
if it does become that.

156
00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:11,040
There's almost been a vendetta where
the athletes have been singled out.

157
00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,640
It seems very strange that if things
are that serious

158
00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:18,040
that the government is not trying to
put pressure on other parts of
society.

159
00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:23,240
Do you personally find the invasion
of Afghanistan morally repugnant?

160
00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:24,840
I don't answer that question.

161
00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:26,960
Not even as a citizen?

162
00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:31,600
I'm speaking as chairman of the
British Olympic Association, not as
a citizen.

163
00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:33,640
I'm sure everyone would
love to know.

164
00:11:33,640 --> 00:11:35,760
I'm sure they would.
Your opinion as a citizen.

165
00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:38,480
I'm sure they would.
Why won't you reveal it?

166
00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:40,160
Because I'm speaking as chairman.

167
00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:43,000
You're not speaking to me
as Denis Follows.

168
00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:47,360
You're speaking to me as chairman
of the British Olympic Association
or you wouldn't be here.

169
00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:50,080
The Olympic boycott issue
aroused fierce passions

170
00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:51,680
up and down the country.

171
00:11:51,680 --> 00:11:54,760
This is a letter from a member
of the public to Sir Denis Follows.

172
00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:59,000
"Why don't you belt up,
you old pompous fool," it begins.

173
00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:03,920
"You and the others must be seniley
demented if you think that politics

174
00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:06,920
must not be
allowed to interfere with sports."

175
00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:08,760
Satisfyingly robust.

176
00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:12,280
But Britain's athletes
were no less robust.

177
00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:14,920
"Britain's Olympic hopefuls
defy Mrs Thatcher.

178
00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:18,720
Most say they will accept an
invitation to go to the Moscow
Games."

179
00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:23,080
Mrs Thatcher has again intervened to
stop British athletes going to
Moscow.

180
00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:25,560
GUNFIRE

181
00:12:28,040 --> 00:12:30,240
Mrs Thatcher wasn't finished yet.

182
00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:32,440
She hated to think of the Kremlin

183
00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:36,800
using our sporting superstars
as a propaganda coup,

184
00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:41,240
so she gave one of her
ministers a new responsibility.

185
00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:43,920
To frustrate the Olympic Games.

186
00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:47,240
We're trying in lots of ways to get
the Russians out of Afghanistan

187
00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:48,600
where they have no right to be.

188
00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:56,040
And one of his efforts took place in
a minister's office, behind closed
doors.

189
00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:02,800
So who was it that Douglas Hurd was
meeting in secret here at the
Foreign Office?

190
00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:04,760
Was it perhaps
a top Olympic official,

191
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:07,400
the secretary general
of the United Nations, maybe?

192
00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:10,720
Perhaps even
the Soviet ambassador himself?

193
00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:14,200
Well, actually,
it was Seb Coe's dad,

194
00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:18,240
the thinking being that Peter Coe
might be able to put pressure on his
son,

195
00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:20,520
the golden boy of British athletics,

196
00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:22,880
to pull out of the Moscow Games.

197
00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:27,360
Unfortunately, though, the meeting
didn't quite go according to plan.

198
00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:38,360
This is Douglas Hurd's memo
of that momentous meeting.

199
00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:43,200
Peter Coe, he reported, "was
strongly opposed to a boycott of
Moscow.

200
00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:48,280
He spoke with some bitterness and
at length on largely familiar lines.

201
00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:51,600
He was naturally concerned about the
degree of sacrifice

202
00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:54,120
that we're asking of athletes like
his son,

203
00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:59,440
and I do not think that I had any
success in altering his views."

204
00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:02,720
Douglas Hurd said later
that his mission

205
00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:06,920
to frustrate the Moscow Olympics
was the most foolish task

206
00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:09,600
in which I was ever entrusted
as a minister.

207
00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:11,800
Foolish, perhaps it was,

208
00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:13,960
but it was certainly a failure.

209
00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,000
Almost all the British team
flew out to Moscow,

210
00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:25,000
but they promised to take no part in
the opening and closing ceremonies.

211
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:30,120
For British medallists, there'd be
no Union Jack and no National
Anthem.

212
00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:35,600
And as for that great showdown,

213
00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:39,680
it became part of Olympic legend.

214
00:14:43,160 --> 00:14:45,720
The first battle
was the 800 metres.

215
00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:48,440
Coe was the favourite
but Ovett won it.

216
00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:52,280
"Steve Ovett coming to take the gold
medal for Great Britain.

217
00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:54,400
To beat Sebastian Coe there."

218
00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:59,960
Then came the 1500 where Ovett was
the favourite but Coe settled the
score.

219
00:14:59,960 --> 00:15:02,440
CHEERING

220
00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:13,200
Despite the public enthusiasm,
there were no official celebrations.

221
00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:18,080
The battle with the government
had left a bitter taste.

222
00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:22,640
Not even sport was immune from the
rising tensions of the Cold War.

223
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,120
For Mrs Thatcher,
her stand over Afghanistan

224
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:34,720
was a powerful statement of intent
in her fight against Communism.

225
00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:38,520
It signalled a stark
new approach to the Cold War.

226
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,320
Now Britain's gloves were off.

227
00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:45,760
Afghanistan shattered
the illusion of detente.

228
00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:51,640
Here at number 10, Margaret Thatcher
saw the Soviet invasion as a
historic turning point.

229
00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:55,040
She wasn't surprised
though because as she later put it,

230
00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:57,680
she'd always known
the nature of the beast.

231
00:15:57,680 --> 00:15:59,920
But, you know, she needed the beast.

232
00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:03,760
Indeed in many ways,
it was the beast that made her name.

233
00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:12,280
Margaret Thatcher had risen from
provincial obscurity

234
00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:16,640
to become the first female leader of
the Conservative Party.

235
00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:20,440
There's a little bit sticking up
there. You can see it.

236
00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:24,840
But at first,
she'd had a bumpy ride.

237
00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,760
Many, even on her own side,
thought she was a fluke,

238
00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:31,200
an aberration who'd soon go away.

239
00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:34,680
But one evening in 1976,

240
00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:38,520
she gave a speech
that changed her image forever.

241
00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:47,160
At 8.30 on the day of the speech,

242
00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:51,720
Margaret Thatcher came to her
favourite salon to have her hair
done,

243
00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:54,520
and then she cleared her diary for
the rest of the morning

244
00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:58,400
to work on this,
the text of her speech.

245
00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:00,880
This was something that meant a lot
to her

246
00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:06,880
and that evening in a voice that her
critics have compared to a cat
sliding down a blackboard,

247
00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:11,400
she told her audience, "The Russians
are bent on world dominance.

248
00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:13,880
They put guns before butter

249
00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:17,320
while we put just about everything
before guns.

250
00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:19,920
They know that they're a super power

251
00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:22,920
in only one sense, the military
sense.

252
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:27,040
They are a failure
in human and economic terms.

253
00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:38,440
In Britain
the speech made little impact,

254
00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:42,440
but 2000 miles away, in Moscow,

255
00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:46,760
one man read the speech
with horrified fascination.

256
00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,680
A young soldier
called Yuri Gavrilov

257
00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:55,680
was working as a journalist for the
Red Army newspaper, Red Star,

258
00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,760
and after reading Margaret
Thatcher's uncompromising words,

259
00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:03,800
he gave her a nickname
that has never gone away.

260
00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:06,880
And here it is, Gavrilov's article,

261
00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:11,560
and the ominous title,
"Iron Lady frightens."

262
00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:14,200
"The Conservative leader
Margaret Thatcher," he says,

263
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,080
"recently gave
a spiteful anti-Soviet speech

264
00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:22,240
at Kensington Town Hall,
pretentiously entitled 'Wake up
England'.

265
00:18:23,120 --> 00:18:24,760
In her hysterical speech,

266
00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:27,200
the Russians are trying
to take over the world,

267
00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:28,800
and according to Mrs Thatcher,

268
00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:32,640
the English people are asleep
and oblivious to the danger,

269
00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:34,680
which only she can see."

270
00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:38,360
You know, the funny thing about
Gavrilov's article

271
00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:41,800
is that he meant those words Iron
Lady as an insult,

272
00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:44,240
but of course from that day on

273
00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:48,320
Margaret Thatcher wore them
with defiant pride.

274
00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:50,800
I stand before you tonight,

275
00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:55,240
in my red star
chiffon evening gown...

276
00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:57,120
LAUGHTER

277
00:19:04,360 --> 00:19:06,600
..my face softly made up

278
00:19:06,600 --> 00:19:09,440
and my fair hair gently waved,

279
00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:16,640
the Iron Lady of the Western world.

280
00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:18,320
APPLAUSE

281
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:23,360
A Cold War warrior,

282
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,520
an Amazon philistine,

283
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,560
even a Peking plotter.

284
00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:32,320
LAUGHTER

285
00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:34,600
Well, am I any of these things?

286
00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:36,120
ALL: No!

287
00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:40,080
Well, yes, if that's how they...

288
00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:41,560
LAUGHTER

289
00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:44,760
Yes, I am an Iron Lady.

290
00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:49,000
Margaret Thatcher
had found her mission.

291
00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:52,480
A few days
after her Iron Lady speech,

292
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:56,760
she visited the British Army
of the Rhine and drove a tank.

293
00:19:56,760 --> 00:20:00,200
This was Thatcherism at
full strength,

294
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:04,280
leading the crusade
against world Communism.

295
00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:08,760
But she couldn't
win this fight on her own.

296
00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:13,560
She needed a partner, someone to
stand beside her on the front line.

297
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:17,800
And in June 1982,
riding over the crest,

298
00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:20,680
came a hero of Hollywood's old west.

299
00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:26,880
You wanted law and order
in this town, you've got it.

300
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:29,880
I'll shoot the first man
who starts for those steps.

301
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:31,400
Come on!

302
00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:36,160
This was Ronald Reagan's
first visit to Britain as president
of the United States.

303
00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:38,240
He stayed at Windsor Castle,

304
00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:42,240
and it was, he wrote in his diary,
"a fairytale experience".

305
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:46,960
Early the next morning
in the calm before the storm,

306
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:51,600
Reagan saddled up his horse and went
for a ride here at Windsor Great
Park.

307
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,440
With him was his trusty sidekick,

308
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:56,640
on this occasion, the Queen.

309
00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:07,240
But he wasn't here just to show us
how to ride a horse, Western style.

310
00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:11,720
Reagan had come to make a speech
in which he would present his vision

311
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:14,840
of the Soviet Union's
inevitable demise.

312
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,760
The president spoke
in Parliament's Royal Gallery,

313
00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,920
dwarfed by paintings
of Waterloo and Trafalgar,

314
00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:27,760
great British victories
over another evil empire.

315
00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:38,000
And one phrase in particular
captured Reagan's confidence

316
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,440
that Communism was doomed.

317
00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:44,840
The march of freedom and democracy
which will lead Marxism,

318
00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,120
Leninism on the ash heap of history,

319
00:21:47,120 --> 00:21:49,280
as it has left other tyrannies,

320
00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:52,600
which stifle the freedom and muzzle
the self-expression of people.

321
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:03,520
This speech was Ronald Reagan's
manifesto for winning the Cold War.

322
00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:06,560
At its heart was a sense of moral
certainty

323
00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:11,160
that the Communists were wrong
and we in the West were right.

324
00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:13,320
In many ways, Reagan was echoing
another speech

325
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:16,320
made by a great international
statesman on foreign soil,

326
00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:21,000
Winston Churchill's speech
of Fulton, Missouri in 1946.

327
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,080
Now that was the speech in which
Churchill coined the phrase

328
00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:25,600
"the iron curtain",

329
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:28,680
and it's often seen as
the moment that the Cold War began.

330
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:32,200
And now, here in the Palace of
Westminster,

331
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:37,440
Reagan took the great man's career
as an inspiration for victory.

332
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:41,240
During the dark days
of the Second World War,

333
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,320
when this island
was incandescent with courage,

334
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:48,720
Winston Churchill exclaimed about
Britain's adversaries,

335
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:53,480
"What kind of a people
do they think we are?"

336
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:55,400
It was classic Reagan

337
00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:59,560
and all the more impressive because
he seemed to be speaking without a
single note.

338
00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:03,680
Afterwards, Mrs Thatcher
congratulated him on his actor's
memory.

339
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:08,320
Reagan admitted that he had been
using a British invention
called an autocue.

340
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:11,960
Or as his aides used to call it,
the sincerity machine.

341
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:21,280
Afterwards, at a Number 10 lunch
in the president's honour,

342
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:25,840
Mrs Thatcher told Reagan that she
thought his speech magnificent.

343
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:30,040
He had, she said, written a new
chapter in our history.

344
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:35,000
It was time, they thought,
to say what we really believed,

345
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:39,000
time to take on the Soviet Union
and beat it.

346
00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:42,440
For Ronald Reagan
and Margaret Thatcher,

347
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,080
a status quo
was no longer an option.

348
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,200
Their mission
wasn't to contain Communism,

349
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,080
it was to roll it back,

350
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:53,880
to exploit its weaknesses
and to assert our strengths.

351
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:59,960
Free markets, free speech
and above all military strength.

352
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:03,960
So to Reagan's critics, his image
of the ash heap of history

353
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,200
is disturbingly appropriate.

354
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,600
He didn't need to be a card-carrying
CND supporter

355
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:12,920
to appreciate this fantastic poster.

356
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:15,680
"She promised to follow him
to the end of the earth.

357
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:18,400
He promised to organise it."

358
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:21,400
To the satirists, Reagan was a gift.

359
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:24,160
A royal defence strategist
has announced that he has analysed

360
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:26,920
the reason for the
current behaviour of the USA.

361
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:31,400
He says the Americans are trying to
make up for the fact that they were
late for the last two world wars

362
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:33,400
by being really punctual this time.

363
00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:38,680
You know, Ed, I know a city,
once proud, reduced to ruins.

364
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:42,360
I have information that the Russians
are there in huge numbers,

365
00:24:42,360 --> 00:24:45,400
building, controlling, arming.

366
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:49,680
That is why today I'm sending
the marines into Leningrad.

367
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,840
What? Oh no, not that,
no, Mr President,

368
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:54,960
please,
we have to have an excuse first.

369
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:58,200
Ed, it's too late.

370
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:03,120
To many people, Reagan's
rhetoric was unsettlingly aggressive

371
00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:06,880
and there was an anxious edge
to the satirists' mockery.

372
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:11,520
Cheese and crackers,
the president's brain is missing!

373
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:16,640
And there was now a fearsome
new addition to the Americans'
nuclear arsenal.

374
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:25,760
"It was just before nine o'clock
that the plane bringing the first
cruise missiles to Britain

375
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,080
came into land at the end of
its overnight flight across..."

376
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:33,360
George Orwell's 1984 had imagined
Britain as Airstrip One,

377
00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:37,080
the forward strike base
for a great military empire

378
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:40,320
and to critics of the new cruise
missiles,

379
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:45,120
Britain had become Ronald Reagan's
nuclear launch pad.

380
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:54,080
Protests stretched from Greenham
Common feminists to earnest
fashionistas.

381
00:25:55,480 --> 00:26:00,560
I was wondering when we were getting
someone walking in here, now one
moment.

382
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:08,600
Oh, I see, it's not...
That's meant to be...

383
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:11,320
We don't have any Pershing here,
dear. They're cruise here.

384
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:15,680
Cruise breathed new life into CND.

385
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:19,480
Not since the Cuban missile
crisis of the early 60s

386
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:24,920
had the clouds of nuclear
catastrophe seemed darker or more
threatening.

387
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,920
But protest was now infused
with a very 80s paranoia.

388
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:35,520
Britain's popular culture
often seemed gripped with a deep
suspicion of American power.

389
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:40,160
Two bars of weapons-grade plutonium.

390
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:45,640
I know how close
we came to a nuclear disaster.

391
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:49,880
But amid all the gloom and doom

392
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:52,200
a group of Scousers with attitude

393
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,400
would have us
dancing into doomsday.

394
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:56,880
MUSIC: "Two Tribes"
by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

395
00:26:57,720 --> 00:26:59,880
When you hear
the air attack warning

396
00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:01,880
You and your family must take cover

397
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:05,880
# Ow, ow, ow

398
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:09,320
# Ow, ow

399
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:13,840
# Let's go

400
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:16,120
# Oh

401
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:18,560
When two tribes go to war

402
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,040
# A point
is all that you can score

403
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,600
Written by the band's
lead singer, Holly Johnson,

404
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,720
the song was inspired by Ronald
Reagan,

405
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,560
the post-apocalyptic film
Mad Max 2,

406
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:35,800
and an unholy amount of marijuana.

407
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:40,400
This is where Frankie Goes To
Hollywood's producer, Trevor Horn,

408
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:45,360
turned Two Tribes into the most
successful anti-war record ever
made.

409
00:27:45,360 --> 00:27:46,840
We'll give it a try, right?

410
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:50,480
Now if it goes wrong, if you miss a
cue, we'll just stop it and do it
again.

411
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:56,160
But the song's unique sound also
owed a great deal to of all people,
CND.

412
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:05,040
# Oh

413
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:06,720
# When two tribes go to war

414
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:10,120
# A point is all that you can score

415
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:11,920
# Let's go to war

416
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,000
# When two tribes go to war

417
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,480
# A point is all that you can score

418
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:20,280
It was this,
the 12-inch version of the song,

419
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:21,800
the Annihilation Mix,

420
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,320
that really captured
the paranoia of the time.

421
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:28,040
On a sleeve you've got this
image of the Lenin mural in Moscow

422
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:29,880
and on the back of it,

423
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:32,720
very fetching photograph of Ronald
Reagan and Mrs Thatcher.

424
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:35,760
There's also lots of facts
and figures about the Cold War

425
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:39,000
and they'd been given
to the band's management by CND.

426
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,840
So for example a table of where the
new US missiles would be stationed.

427
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:46,840
But CND also gave the band
something else.

428
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,640
They gave them a leaked copy of the
secret government film

429
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:53,840
that was meant to be broadcast
to the nation

430
00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:58,280
if the worst happened and Britain
was facing a nuclear attack.

431
00:28:58,280 --> 00:28:59,480
SIREN

432
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:05,560
"When you hear the attack warning,

433
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:08,640
you and your family must take
cover at once.

434
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:12,000
Do not stay out of doors.

435
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,400
If you are caught in the open,
lie down."

436
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:20,280
The last voice we'd ever hear
belonged to Patrick Allen.

437
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:26,160
His reputation as TV's grandfather
of the voiceover had made him
a minor celebrity.

438
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:30,600
If you cannot reach home in ten
minutes, take cover in the nearest
building.

439
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:35,160
If there is no building nearby,
try to find some solid cover.

440
00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:38,720
Struck by the power
of the apocalyptic narration,

441
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,280
Trevor Horn wanted to re-use it

442
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:44,200
but he was worried about the
Official Secrets Act

443
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,840
so he asked Allen to do it again.

444
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:50,920
While Patrick Allen
was with Trevor Horn in the studio,

445
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:53,000
lines kept coming back to him

446
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:55,360
that he had originally recorded
for the government film

447
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,000
but were thought
a bit too bleak for broadcast.

448
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:02,280
Lines like "If your grandmother
or any other member of the family

449
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:05,760
should die while in the shelter..."

450
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:07,920
..from contamination,
put them outside

451
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:12,040
but remember to tag them first
for identification purposes.

452
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:19,600
..or any other member of the family
should die whilst in the shelter,

453
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:24,120
put them outside but remember to
tag them first for identification.

454
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:26,320
Accompanying the song
was a controversial video,

455
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:30,520
which featured a Reagan lookalike
fighting the Soviet premier,

456
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,560
also a lookalike,
while the UN looked on.

457
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:36,800
The BBC banned it.

458
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:49,200
Two Tribes reflected one of the
great ironies of the Cold War,

459
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:53,640
that in the Western democracies
people often used their free speech

460
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:56,120
to rail against their own side

461
00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:58,000
rather than the Communist East.

462
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:04,640
I was only ten at the time,
a schoolboy here at Birchfield
near Wolverhampton,

463
00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:08,720
but even as children in this leafy
corner of the West Midlands,

464
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:12,360
we couldn't escape
the shadow of the Cold War.

465
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:19,120
For children like me
growing up in the 1980s,

466
00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:22,600
war was something that you
read about in the history books.

467
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,160
I was part of a generation who had
never felt

468
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:26,600
the thump of a bomb dropping,

469
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:30,160
who'd never heard the wail
of an air raid siren,

470
00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:33,240
who'd never seen
a war plane streaking overhead.

471
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:37,760
Yet somehow
a fear of war remained very real.

472
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,800
It even invaded the sanctity
of my childhood classroom.

473
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:55,640
And nothing captured that fear
better

474
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:59,240
than a short children's book
about a nuclear war.

475
00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:01,880
"East is East and West is West

476
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:06,000
and maybe it was a difference of
opinion or just a
computer malfunction.

477
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,200
Either way,
it set off a chain of events

478
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:11,080
that nobody but a mad man
could have wanted

479
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,920
and which nobody,
not even the mad men, could stop."

480
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,400
This is Brother In The Land
by Robert Swindells.

481
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:21,000
It was published in 1984.

482
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,000
It must be the bleakest children's
book ever written.

483
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,280
It's the story
of a boy called Danny.

484
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:27,960
A young lad from the north of
England

485
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:30,600
who's caught up in the
aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse.

486
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:34,400
Now things don't go entirely
swimmingly for poor old Danny.

487
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:36,080
His mother was killed in the blast

488
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:38,040
and they have to wrap her
in polythene,

489
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,960
his dad is blown up
on the back of a truck,

490
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:45,200
his brother Ben,
at the end of the book, Ben's seven,
dies of radiation sickness.

491
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:48,040
All in all,
it's not exactly Enid Blyton.

492
00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:50,520
Now I was ten when I read this

493
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:54,320
and I vividly remember the day that
our teacher brought it into class.

494
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,880
I remember too our growing sense
of desolation

495
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,240
as we worked our way
towards the end,

496
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:02,680
and I also remember something else.

497
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:06,760
A dread that one day
fiction might become fact.

498
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:15,240
Indeed a poll in April 1980
found that four out of ten people

499
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:19,080
thought nuclear war
was coming in the next ten years.

500
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:28,440
MAN: What would you do
if you heard a warning?

501
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:30,320
I don't know, run for it.

502
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:33,520
Honestly I don't know.
I'd be totally unprepared.

503
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:36,560
Waste of time, isn't it,
going anywhere.

504
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:38,640
You've had it, ain't you?

505
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:40,920
Had it, ain't you?

506
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:42,800
MAN: Would you take any preparations
at all?

507
00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:44,920
What preparations?
You've had it, ain't you?

508
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,360
You've had it, ain't you?
No good messing about, is it?

509
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:49,200
You've had it, ain't you?

510
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:52,000
No point crying over spilt milk,
is there?

511
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:53,240
Hello, Alison.
GIRL: Hello.

512
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:55,680
In the event of a nuclear war,
where will you be?

513
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,360
LAUGHTER

514
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:01,120
Oh my goodness me,
I shall be in London.

515
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:03,960
In your own bunker or something?

516
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:10,720
Everybody knew there were secret
underground nuclear bunkers

517
00:34:10,720 --> 00:34:12,960
for Britain's political masters,

518
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:17,440
but what about the rest of us,
what sort of future could we expect,

519
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:21,680
if the worst happened
and the bombs started falling?

520
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,520
Well, the government had prepared
a booklet to be sent out

521
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:26,840
when nuclear attacks
seemed imminent.

522
00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:30,640
However,
there was a problem with the timing.

523
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:36,680
"The government intends to print
and distribute this booklet to every
home in the country.

524
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:41,520
But while the planners are banking
on three weeks' warning of nuclear
attack,

525
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:46,240
Her Majesty's stationery office say
it will take at least four weeks
just to print the booklet."

526
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:52,560
Under growing pressure from people
who wanted to see this nuclear
survival guide,

527
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:55,800
the Home Office finally agreed
to publish it.

528
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:59,440
It cost 50p and it was called
Protect and Survive

529
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,080
and ironically
it convinced many people

530
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:06,480
that preparing for survival
was a waste of time.

531
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:09,960
This booklet
was supposed to reassure people.

532
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:12,440
Unfortunately it had
quite the opposite effect.

533
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,120
"First priority is to provide
shelter within your home

534
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:18,160
against radioactive fallout.

535
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:20,800
Your best protection is to make
a fallout room

536
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,560
and build an inner refuge within
it."

537
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:27,680
Do you have to dig a hole like the
old Anderson shelters in the war?

538
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:31,200
No dear, that's all old-fashioned.
With modern scientific methods,

539
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,000
you just use doors
with cushions and books on top.

540
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,800
Seriously, we ought
to do something about this bomb.

541
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:42,680
I'm going upstairs to get the
incredibly helpful and informative
Protect and Survive manual.

542
00:35:43,720 --> 00:35:45,720
Nobody better touch this
while I'm gone.

543
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,040
LAUGHTER

544
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:57,120
Here, Oppenheimer, listen,
if the bomb was to drop round here,

545
00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,800
how long would we have to stay
inside this thing here?

546
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:04,280
Well, it depends upon the degree
of contamination in the air outside,

547
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:07,520
cos we're in a very vulnerable
position here being so close to the
docks,

548
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:10,400
but I would say roughly,

549
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:14,600
give or take a week or two,
about two years.

550
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:16,840
BOTH: Two years?!

551
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:18,920
Yeah, give or take a week or two.

552
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:22,880
If you think I'm staying in
a lead-lined Nissen hut with you and
Grandad

553
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:26,560
and a chemical bloody kazi,
you got another think coming.

554
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:42,040
But in 1984, the BBC made a
feature-length drama

555
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:46,280
about the outbreak and aftermath
of a nuclear war

556
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:47,760
and no one was laughing.

557
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:52,880
Threads depicted a nuclear attack
on this city in South Yorkshire.

558
00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:04,960
Now there had been
plenty of post-apocalyptic TV dramas

559
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:08,320
but there's never been one
quite as hard-hitting as Threads.

560
00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:10,800
It was filmed here, in Sheffield,

561
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,680
and they used mainly
local people as the actors.

562
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:18,280
The director told them, come as
badly looking as you dare, or worse.

563
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:21,240
Threads was exceptionally realistic,

564
00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:26,000
it was unrelentingly bleak
and it was very, very disturbing.

565
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,200
I was too young
to watch it at the time

566
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:31,920
but I vividly remember the
front cover of the Radio Times.

567
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:34,560
Even this gave me nightmares.

568
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:38,120
In a statement issued by the
Pentagon in Washington,

569
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:41,360
the United States has accused
the Soviet Union...

570
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:45,440
Threads is a reminder of the
Cold War's psychological impact

571
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:48,280
on a generation
living in the shadow of the bomb.

572
00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:18,520
SCREAMING

573
00:38:44,720 --> 00:38:47,360
This was the ultimate nuclear
nightmare,

574
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:51,280
free from censorship
and playing at peak time.

575
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:56,720
Even today, I defy anybody to watch
Threads all the way through

576
00:38:56,720 --> 00:38:59,360
and then sleep comfortably
the following evening

577
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,920
and at the time
it provoked a passionate reaction.

578
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:07,880
These are just some of the flood
of letters sent to the BBC
back in 1984.

579
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:10,480
"Dear Sir,"
says this woman from Swansea,

580
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:14,240
"it's three o'clock in the morning
after the screening of Threads.

581
00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:18,840
I cannot sleep for the feelings
of terror and utter hopelessness."

582
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,480
If you think that's a bit bleak,
you should try this one.

583
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:24,520
This is from an old lady in Suffolk.

584
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:26,640
"I made up my mind there and then

585
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:29,160
I'm too old to cope
with a nuclear winter

586
00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:31,080
and I wrote to our dear Mrs Thatcher

587
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:34,080
to ask her for suicide pills
for us old 'uns,

588
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,160
a small suicide pill we can swallow

589
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:39,040
that will go down
with a nice cup of tea

590
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,640
when we heard the four-minute
nuclear warning."

591
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:45,080
Many of the cast of Threads
were the townspeople of Sheffield

592
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,920
and they were invited to a private
viewing of the film before
transmission.

593
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:53,240
All I can say is, I didn't think
I would have reacted like this,

594
00:39:53,240 --> 00:39:55,840
you know,
but I just couldn't help it.

595
00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:58,480
There's going to be nothing
after it, nothing.

596
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:03,520
Threads reflected the dark irony
of the Cold War years.

597
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:09,040
By the 1980s, most people were
better off and more comfortable than
ever,

598
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,920
and yet they lived
with the constant anxiety

599
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:15,520
that it could all be taken
away at the push of a button.

600
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:21,200
As one of those with a finger
on the button knew only too well.

601
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:26,480
We are the parents
and the children of the nuclear age.

602
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:30,240
We may not welcome it,
we may fear it,

603
00:40:30,240 --> 00:40:32,800
we may even be haunted by it,

604
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:37,560
but pretending it doesn't exist
is not a solution.

605
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,720
Come what may,
it can't be wished away.

606
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:51,360
But we weren't
just the nuclear generation,

607
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:54,920
we were also becoming
the post-industrial generation.

608
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:57,280
Britain was changing,

609
00:40:57,280 --> 00:40:59,800
our old heavy industries were dying

610
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:04,280
and this too
became part of the Cold War story.

611
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:14,240
In November 1984,

612
00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:17,880
a man dedicated to overthrowing
Mrs Thatcher's government

613
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:20,240
and Western capitalism itself,

614
00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:23,600
took a cab
to the Soviet Embassy in London.

615
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:27,000
The man in the taxi
was looking for money

616
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,320
because the British government
had frozen his assets.

617
00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:34,520
At the time he was probably the
most controversial man in the land,

618
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:36,960
and his name was Arthur Scargill.

619
00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:39,640
The only point of interference in
this dispute

620
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:42,600
is the abdication of Mrs Thatcher.

621
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:45,520
Arthur Scargill
was a committed Marxist.

622
00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:49,160
He was also the head of one
of Britain's strongest trade unions,

623
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:52,000
the National Union of Mineworkers.

624
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,640
# Self doubt and selfism

625
00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:00,440
In 1984, Scargill led his men

626
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:03,400
into a brutal showdown
with the Thatcher government.

627
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:07,000
It was the most divisive
strike in our modern history.

628
00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:10,040
Now Scargill needed Soviet money

629
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:12,920
to sustain the strike
through the long winter.

630
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:20,880
For Mrs Thatcher, the striking
miners represented exactly

631
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:23,280
the kind of backward-looking
socialism

632
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:25,520
that she'd come into politics
to destroy.

633
00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:28,160
As she saw it,
they were the enemy within

634
00:42:28,160 --> 00:42:33,000
and this was merely one battle
in her wider war against Communism.

635
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:37,240
But the miners' strike represented a
mortal threat to her administration.

636
00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:41,760
At stake was not just her
credibility but her political
survival.

637
00:42:44,720 --> 00:42:47,880
The very idea of the Russians
bankrolling a strike

638
00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:52,320
that could bring down her
government was political dynamite.

639
00:42:55,400 --> 00:43:00,040
Downing Street was so worried by
all these stories about the Russians
funding the NUM,

640
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:03,720
that they told one of Mrs Thatcher's
ministers, Norman Lamont,

641
00:43:03,720 --> 00:43:07,320
to look into it and to have a word
with the Soviet ambassador.

642
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:09,400
But the ambassador
was having none of it.

643
00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:11,640
"There was no reason," he said,

644
00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:14,120
"why Soviet miners as individuals

645
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,920
should not raise money for British
miners if they wish to do so.

646
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:21,360
This had nothing to do
with the Soviet government."

647
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:23,640
So now the Foreign Office
got involved.

648
00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:25,840
They called in the Russian
ambassador

649
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:27,800
and told him that if they discovered

650
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:30,120
that the Kremlin was giving money
to the miners,

651
00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:34,400
"we would take a very serious view
and we would regard it

652
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:40,480
as an unfriendly, unwarrantable
interference in British domestic
affairs."

653
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:47,720
To make matters worse, flying into
town in the middle of all this,

654
00:43:47,720 --> 00:43:50,040
was the Kremlin's
latest rising star.

655
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:55,240
We realise that you lead
the most important delegation

656
00:43:55,240 --> 00:43:58,520
from Soviet Union to Britain
for many a year.

657
00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:00,560
Hotly tipped as their next leader,

658
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:03,320
Mikhail Gorbachev was the most
senior Soviet official

659
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:06,640
to visit Britain for 17 years.

660
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:10,320
At Chequers,
Mrs Thatcher came out fighting.

661
00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:11,760
The Kremlin, she insisted,

662
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:15,600
must know that Soviet money
was backing the British miners.

663
00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:17,240
Gorbachev denied it.

664
00:44:17,240 --> 00:44:21,680
Behind the public smiles, it
was a desperately awkward moment

665
00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:25,160
and yet for all her Iron Lady image,

666
00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:28,000
Margaret Thatcher
was the consummate pragmatist,

667
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,040
and as the talks continued,

668
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:32,880
she began to charm the Kremlin's
coming man.

669
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:37,920
Despite the tension, something quite
unexpected was beginning to happen,

670
00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:40,680
because Margaret Thatcher
and Mikhail Gorbachev

671
00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:44,480
were beginning to develop
a personal chemistry.

672
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:47,720
I rather think that each of
them recognised in the other

673
00:44:47,720 --> 00:44:50,920
a kindred spirit, a fellow radical,

674
00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:55,000
fighting to overhaul
the creaking machinery of the state

675
00:44:55,000 --> 00:45:00,280
and this meeting was to prove a
landmark in Anglo-Soviet relations.

676
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:05,440
Mrs Thatcher found Gorbachev
very different

677
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:09,480
from the usual Soviet apparatchik,
more relaxed, more open,

678
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:11,520
more Western,

679
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:15,120
yet there was no doubt
who was wearing the trousers.

680
00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:24,080
I like Mr Gorbachev,
we can do business together.

681
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:31,040
What drove
the Maggie and Gorbi show

682
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:33,280
was not just a personal rapport

683
00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:36,520
but something altogether
more fundamental.

684
00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:40,160
In the West, the free market was
at full throttle,

685
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:45,800
as in the East, a Soviet alternative
to capitalism had ground to a halt.

686
00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:52,120
For 40 years, the Cold War had
effectively kept capitalism
responsible

687
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,840
because the West needed to win
the battle for hearts and minds,

688
00:45:55,840 --> 00:46:00,880
but as the Soviet model began
to implode so the brakes came off.

689
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:05,720
Here in Britain, we no longer needed
to apologise for getting filthy
rich,

690
00:46:05,720 --> 00:46:10,680
and even mother Russia was about to
make her peace with a free market.

691
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:16,120
When I become premier, mother Russia
will lead the world in psychedelic
cosmicness.

692
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:20,800
For a start we'll do away with the
three-year waiting list for a kipper
tie.

693
00:46:20,800 --> 00:46:23,400
We could have platform shoes
for the KGB.

694
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:25,800
And I'll legalise hoola hoops.

695
00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:32,520
Gorbachev's first task as leader

696
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:35,160
was to tackle his country's
economic collapse.

697
00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:39,440
He began to unleash
the power of private enterprise.

698
00:46:39,440 --> 00:46:42,320
The Russians called it Perestroika

699
00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,720
and it released a long dormant
entrepreneurial spirit,

700
00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:50,760
but this small success
was born of a deeper failure.

701
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:53,880
Gorbachev's reforms
were a sign of surrender.

702
00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:58,120
In effect, they said to the West,
"OK, you win."

703
00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:10,520
So when Margaret Thatcher
hit Moscow in 1987

704
00:47:10,520 --> 00:47:12,640
she came as a conqueror.

705
00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:21,480
Into the heart of Communism,

706
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:26,160
she brought the message of Western
power and free market capitalism.

707
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:29,560
This was Thatcherism's high noon.

708
00:47:42,560 --> 00:47:46,560
Her hosts had scheduled
a series of telegenic locations,

709
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:49,720
and top of the list was the Kremlin,

710
00:47:49,720 --> 00:47:54,080
where Gorbachev welcomed her in the
glittering Saint George's Hall.

711
00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:58,640
It was a supremely symbolic moment,

712
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:02,120
the Iron Lady, the Cold War warrior,

713
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:06,360
welcomed into the inner sanctum
of the Communist empire.

714
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:09,800
Here in the heart of the Kremlin,

715
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:13,600
would the Iron Lady denounce
the Soviet bear or embrace it?

716
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:17,320
Mrs Thatcher told the press
that of all her foreign visits,

717
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:19,920
this was the one that she was most
prepared for.

718
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:24,440
She was ready, she said, for a long
dialogue, plenty of disagreements

719
00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:26,280
and a hostile press.

720
00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:29,120
But she needn't have worried,

721
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:31,520
for this would be a trip like
no other.

722
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:36,440
No Western leader had ever come
to Moscow and made such an impact.

723
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:44,240
Mrs Thatcher had dressed to impress.

724
00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:50,880
With her glamorous array of hats,
coats and tailored suits,

725
00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:54,320
her look symbolised the Western
luxury

726
00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:56,960
to which the Soviet people aspired.

727
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:06,120
Everywhere she went she was mobbed.

728
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,760
Not since Catherine the Great
had the Russian people

729
00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:13,720
seen such a captivating,
opulent and powerful woman.

730
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:21,520
The Russians admired strength,
and here on primetime TV

731
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:25,080
was the warrior queen in full force.

732
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:27,840
Can I...
Can I just answer this one first?

733
00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:31,920
Look, isn't your response
that to anyone,

734
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:37,160
look, if you attack us,
you'll have such a terrible time

735
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:42,240
that you cannot win
and isn't that the best defence

736
00:49:42,240 --> 00:49:44,240
to anyone who threatens you?

737
00:49:44,240 --> 00:49:48,320
Doesn't... One moment. Doesn't
the bully go for the weak person,

738
00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:50,240
not for the strong?

739
00:49:50,240 --> 00:49:53,200
You have more...
If you take this view,

740
00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:55,600
I wonder why you have
so many nuclear weapons.

741
00:49:59,240 --> 00:50:01,960
To the Russians,
Britain's prime minister

742
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:04,200
had once been a capitalist enemy

743
00:50:04,200 --> 00:50:07,640
but now they treated her
like a film star.

744
00:50:09,720 --> 00:50:13,920
Here in the Kremlin, they didn't
call Margaret Thatcher the Iron Lady
any more,

745
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:17,440
they called her the lady
with the blue eyes.

746
00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:23,680
But old blue eyes
wasn't the only British export

747
00:50:23,680 --> 00:50:27,040
chipping away at communism's rotten
foundations.

748
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:37,920
The 1980s was also the high
watermark

749
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:42,760
for another enormously influential
force behind the iron curtain.

750
00:50:43,600 --> 00:50:45,320
Britain's rock music.

751
00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:48,640
And in June 1987,

752
00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:51,240
thousands of East Berliners gathered

753
00:50:51,240 --> 00:50:54,760
to hear some of Britain's
biggest bands play live.

754
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:58,400
They were headlining
the Concert for Berlin,

755
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:04,480
a three-day extravaganza
to celebrate the city's 750th
anniversary.

756
00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:09,160
The trouble was that it was on the
other side of the wall

757
00:51:09,160 --> 00:51:11,400
so many fans scurried up trees,

758
00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:14,520
they clambered up chimneys,
they packed on to balconies,

759
00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:18,360
they climbed up to roofs
just to get a glimpse of the gig.

760
00:51:25,640 --> 00:51:26,640
CHEERING

761
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:31,320
Some brave souls gathered
in front of the Soviet embassy

762
00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:35,520
and some of them even danced in full
view of the Russian officials.

763
00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:41,040
It was after all the best place to
hear the music from across the wall.

764
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:45,920
What a line-up for these German
fans: David Bowie, Eurythmics,

765
00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:48,600
and best of all, Genesis.

766
00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:55,960
Tonight, tonight, tonight,
Berlin partied as one city.

767
00:51:55,960 --> 00:51:57,240
CHEERING

768
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:01,200
MUSIC: "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"
by Genesis

769
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:26,000
For those
on the Eastern side of the wall,

770
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:30,320
Western music represented
what we had and what they wanted.

771
00:52:31,040 --> 00:52:33,880
More choice and more freedom.

772
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:40,880
One of West Berlin's
biggest radio stations

773
00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:44,640
broadcast the concert
live across the wall,

774
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:46,840
and to listeners
in the Communist East

775
00:52:46,840 --> 00:52:51,240
it sent a powerful message:
We are one city.

776
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:56,080
# Cos tonight, tonight, tonight

777
00:52:56,080 --> 00:52:59,480
# Oh oh

778
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:03,320
SPEAKS GERMAN

779
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:12,840
The highlight of the evening,

780
00:53:12,840 --> 00:53:15,720
well, apart from Phil Collins
speaking German obviously,

781
00:53:15,720 --> 00:53:18,600
came during David Bowie's set.

782
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:23,760
Bowie said later that this was one
of the most emotional performances
he had ever given.

783
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:25,720
He'd never done anything like it.

784
00:53:25,720 --> 00:53:30,520
When he was on stage, he could hear
the East German fans cheering

785
00:53:30,520 --> 00:53:33,240
and singing along across the wall.

786
00:53:33,240 --> 00:53:37,080
When he performed Heroes,
a song that he had written here

787
00:53:37,080 --> 00:53:39,160
and set in this city,

788
00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:43,800
he said that it felt anthemic,
almost like a prayer.

789
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:49,040
MUSIC: "Heroes" by David Bowie

790
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:18,080
For three nights, East German
youths fought running battles with
the Communist police.

791
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:20,720
# You'll be my queen

792
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:26,560
Across Berlin, the chants went up,
"The wall must go!"

793
00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:29,040
# Will drive them away

794
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:34,760
# We can beat them

795
00:54:34,760 --> 00:54:37,000
# Just for one day

796
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:41,240
# We could be heroes

797
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:45,520
# Just for one day

798
00:54:52,320 --> 00:54:53,840
This best of British gig

799
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:58,720
was a very loud example of something
that diplomats call soft power,

800
00:54:58,720 --> 00:55:01,160
the way that one country
can influence another,

801
00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:03,240
not through bullets and guns

802
00:55:03,240 --> 00:55:06,640
but by the force of its moral
and cultural example.

803
00:55:07,640 --> 00:55:10,480
For more than 20 years, ever since
the days of the Beatles,

804
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:14,600
British pop and rock had been
infiltrating the Soviet bloc,

805
00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:18,880
and to those people starved
of liberty behind their own curtain

806
00:55:18,880 --> 00:55:25,040
it represented not just modernity
and self-expression but freedom and
fun.

807
00:55:29,920 --> 00:55:33,080
"East Germany has tonight
opened its borders to the West.

808
00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:35,680
28 years after the Berlin wall
was built,

809
00:55:35,680 --> 00:55:39,200
its people are once more
free to travel anywhere."

810
00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:40,680
MUSIC: "With Or Without You" by U2

811
00:55:43,600 --> 00:55:47,480
# See the stone set in your eyes

812
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:52,360
# See the thorn twist in your side

813
00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:56,080
# I will wait for you

814
00:55:56,080 --> 00:55:58,800
Two years later, the wall came down.

815
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:03,720
That night in November 1989
changed the world forever.

816
00:56:03,720 --> 00:56:05,760
It united Europe,

817
00:56:05,760 --> 00:56:07,560
it shattered the Soviet empire

818
00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:10,080
and it brought an end
to the Cold War.

819
00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:14,200
It also freed us from the terrors
of nuclear Armageddon

820
00:56:14,200 --> 00:56:19,560
and it set free millions of
individuals who simply wanted what
we had.

821
00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:25,040
"People jumped aboard buses and
headed to bright lights of West
Berlin city centre."

822
00:56:25,040 --> 00:56:29,480
And what was one of the first things
East Berliners did in the West?

823
00:56:29,480 --> 00:56:31,280
They went shopping.

824
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:35,000
"They described the difference
between the shops here and at home

825
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:38,000
as like the difference
between night and day."

826
00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:51,280
To Margaret Thatcher, the collapse
of Communism was the ultimate
vindication.

827
00:56:54,200 --> 00:56:56,600
But her fate had a cruel twist.

828
00:56:56,600 --> 00:57:01,000
Just a year later, her colleagues
drew up her political death warrant

829
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:03,840
at the very moment she was in Paris,

830
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:08,520
signing the arms reduction treaty
that marked the end of the Cold War.

831
00:57:09,600 --> 00:57:12,640
"These forces introduced
by Stalin to threaten the West

832
00:57:12,640 --> 00:57:15,360
and withdrawn by Gorbachev to earn
its goodwill

833
00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:19,280
are now to be pulled back
and destroyed under international
agreement."

834
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:28,960
The Iron Lady had been
Britain's ultimate Cold War weapon

835
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:32,480
but now, like these
withdrawing Soviet tanks,

836
00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:35,520
she was
unceremoniously decommissioned.

837
00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:40,760
Still, she had left an indelible
imprint on British life,

838
00:57:40,760 --> 00:57:43,320
rather like the Cold War itself.

839
00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:48,720
Victory had been won,

840
00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:52,880
not with bombs and bullets
but with credit and consumerism.

841
00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:57,480
And history now records
that dictatorship and Marxism

842
00:57:57,480 --> 00:58:01,360
just couldn't compete
with democracy and markets.

843
00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:07,560
So we won.
What did we do with our victory?

844
00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:10,880
We unleashed the power
of turbo capitalism,

845
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:14,920
now free from all restraint because
it was the only game in town.

846
00:58:14,920 --> 00:58:18,000
This was the system
that had won the Cold War,

847
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:21,640
the system that was going to give us
everlasting prosperity,

848
00:58:21,640 --> 00:58:24,120
and then it didn't.

849
00:58:24,120 --> 00:58:28,320
I bet very few of us now would look
back and wish that the Communists
had won

850
00:58:28,320 --> 00:58:30,000
but I doubt I'm alone

851
00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:34,520
in wishing that we had used
our victory a little more wisely.

852
00:58:50,680 --> 00:58:52,720
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